CBJ
I've used Cakewalk since 1987 when it was a DOS product to start with & will continue using 8.53 till the day I die. Sure it's got a few quirks but so does every other software that's ever been developed in the world & currently in use & this doesn't apply to the music industry but rather every other code writing group in the World. There is no perfect software! What are these serious problems in X1, X2, X3 that you claim are serious enough to cause you to move on to another DAW? There's very little that's broken in X3!

I was not using Cakewalk software at 1987, but from everything I read Cakewalk was an innovative jewel at the beginning of its history. But if software is not properly developed, at some point is it going to be obsolete. And that has happened with Sonar. There was no significant changes in the engine for more then 10 years.
And now it is an opportunity for users to check alternatives. There are several. I do not know why you see that as a nonsense.
 

Some people embrace change.  Others struggle with it.  Having made a career in IT, I understand both viewpoints.  I still have an old laptop with Windows XP and Sonar 8.5 installed.  I haven't booted it lately, but it is cool knowing I can if I want to.  But I now prefer Windows 10 and the latest DAW technology.
 
But as with many other things, choosing sides makes no sense.
 
As change is the only thing that is permanent anyway. 

I ended up with Presonus Studio One 3, and to add my usual question to that title, why the hell don't they just call it "Studio 3"??????  Anyway, it's easy, far easier than I ever expected.  I have only gone to the manual a few times, so if you want a DAW you can just jump right into I highly recommend it. You'll be up and running in 10 minutes.  I find myself a little baffled with its midi capabilities, but I'm not a power-midi user so that's not a deal-breaker.  Also, even though others will fiercely disagree, it sounds more "open" to me than SONAR does.  I know that blind tests demonstrate that no one can tell the difference in DAWs, but it truly does sound "better" to me. 
 
I tried Samplitude and like it, but boy there's a lot of clicking using that thing.  It just seems very labor intensive to get something done.  Also, I found myself in the manual a lot trying to figure out things.  There are some cool vsti's that come with it, in particular "Independence" and the highly underrated "Vandal" that are well worth a look.
 
Reaper is getting a lot of love here.  When I tried it, it felt a tad overwhelming and baffling, but, to be honest, I didn't really dig in with it.  So take that with a grain of salt.  Check Sharke's other posts in this same forum and he'll highlight some of the pluses for you.
 
Good luck on your search.

Cubase 9.5. Rock solid, and does everything I need it to. Also, it does what I want quickly, which is a big selling point with me. If Cubase didn't exist, I'd be on Reaper. Love the program, but Cubase is still faster for me to use.

Still planning on using SONAR until I can't anymore. I don't expect that to happen anytime soon, if ever.
 
I do, however, have a plan B if it does ever come to that: Samplitude. I've learned it well enough to be confident that it will fill the bill if needed. 
 
It's not about embracing or rejecting change. It's about what's important enough to warrant a disruption to the real task at hand, which is making music. I'd rather allocate the limited hours I have in a day to working on my chops, composing, and recording. 

I agree with both Sharke and CBJ. Reaper is a great DAW, but yes, you can still get quite a bit of mileage out of Sonar, even if it never experiences a resurrection (hey, Spring is coming, who knows?).
 
My path actually has led backwards rather than forwards, following "the news." My experience is probably unique. I started with Home Studio 6 in the late 90's, progressing up to 8.5.3 Producer. That's when the problems started. Producer had various glitches for me, causing frequent crashes and hyper-vigilance. For example, if I suddenly stopped playback while my EWSO basses were playing, Sonar would crash. This weird bug could not be solved by Cakewalk or East West support. I should have upgraded, but went to Reaper instead, where eventually I was able to develop a workflow which I pretended was as fast as Sonar's.
 
Then, the news hit. I wanted to see what version of Sonar I could go forward with, if Sonar was to be no more. I remembered I had 8.5 Studio. I barely had used it, upgrading quickly to Producer. To my surprise, it had none of the glitches that Producer had. So, I have gone back to 8.5 Studio. My workflow is faster than it has ever been, and no crashes.
 
I tried the "free" Home Studio, really liked it, but found I needed an Event List. As for Reaper, it's not that well-suited for orchestral composers. Midi routing is a painful process. It took at least a week for folks on the forum to finally get me doing it right. And Reaper has some weird behavior on a really long piece. Toward the end, it would jump back to the beginning every time I made a CC change. Not great for the workflow. I am hopeful that in time Reaper will evolve to the point where I can use it efficiently. The incredible notation editor they developed almost overnight gives me hope. But it just doesn't seem like the devs have classical music in mind. However, as I said my experience is probably unique. The vast majority of Sonar users would do just fine on Reaper.
 
We're all free to do what we want. Stay or go. Go forward, go backward. The only thing I don't like is people slamming each other for their choices. Or slamming a product that doesn't work well for them, while for others it's ideal. Report your experience, maybe it will be helpful to others. That's what I try to do.

Cubase 9.5
 
I'm an all-MIDI-all-the-time guy, and Cubase is the best DAW I've ever used when it comes to MIDI work. I loved Sonar, and I have Reaper, Samplitude and Harrison Mixbus. Reaper is great, and was my official backup DAW when Sonar was experiencing growing pains and I had stability issues.
 
But after demoing Cubase in December, I was pretty easily convinced to buy it. It is simply outstanding - very solid, very efficient, and I found it quite easy to learn. 

I use SPlat and Live 9 and I'm not having any problems with SPlat. Live doesn't seem very good for mixing so I don't see it replacing SPlat. I picked up Samplitude as a plan B and am using that occasionlly - if I run into problems with SPlat I'll use Samplitude. 

marled
Believe me BobF, there are the same problems with cars. They are never perfect. They have a lot of issues, especially modern cars. The only difference is that nobody tells you about and sends you patches, except when it is dangerous to life.

Sometimes.

My DAW can beat up your DAW.